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Leonora Ryder
|nationality = Cheyenne |occupation = Bounty Hunter Outlaw |affiliations = Mahova Coven (formerly) The Group Montaña Cartel Kaji Endo's Crew |relationships = †''' '''† †''' |race = Elf (Cheyenne) |gender = Female |height = 6'3" |eye color = Dark brown |hair color = Black |skin color = Tan |portrayed by = PeachPie |appears in = Violent Hearts: A Western Epic |first appearance = "Mystery of Hyde Manor, Part I"}} '''Leonora Ryder (born simply as Leonora; Dominus XIV, 855 AE) is one of the protagonists of Violent Hearts: A Western Epic. Born in the Cheyenne territories, Leonora was kidnapped at a very young age and indoctrinated into a coven located deep in the Mahova mountains and raised as a witch. After escaping a massacre by the Templetons that left everyone in the coven dead, she now searches for a way to leave the remnants of her tumultuous upbringing behind her and find a life of peace. Early Life Leonora was born in the small village of Kauyaa along the southwestern shore of Cheyenne Lake on Dominus XIV, 855 AE to Aaju and Lena. Her name is a reference to an old legend about a wayward wolf cub that wanders from the pack and gets lost, and was given to her because of her fondness for wandering off and getting into places she's not supposed to be. One day as dusk fell upon the village, she saw dancing lights among the trees and the mountain paths. Enthralled by the lights, she followed them into the wilderness and was quickly snatched away by a dark figure. Mahova Coven From then on, Leonora's life would be difficult. She was made to study demonic texts and infernal scripts for long hours until she could recite them from memory, and practice rituals until she was able to perform them without conscious thought. Her propensity for the arcane lead her to excel at the art, but that only caused the coven's master to push her even harder. Soon enough she was inducted into a demonic pact, binding her soul to the powers of darkness. From then on her studying would extend into sleepless nights, kept awake by the demonic power surging inside of her. During the day, the rituals and sacrifices became more frequent to sate the blood-lust of their demonic overlords. Leonora had her misgivings about the suffering they were causing the victims of their rituals, but her masters assured her that unlike their victims, she was special, that she was part of a plan greater and more important than anything that had come before it, and that anyone who opposed them deserved death and suffering. And although her doubts didn't quiet, she didn't dare voice them to anyone apart from her closest friend Maria Isabelle Weston; a human girl around her age who she had known since the first day she arrived. Leonora and Maria had formed a profound bond as they grew into adulthood, and while their relationship wasn't necessarily sexual, they shared a deep romantic affection for each other that would often be their only respite from the horrors and toil of their life in the coven. Many nights they would hide away from their taskmasters together, holding each other close and whispering to each other in the darkness, sharing their dreams and fantasizing about running away together to live free, away from the blood and the darkness. Massacre by the Templetons In autumn of 877 AE the coven was discovered and raided by the Templetons. It happened so suddenly that they scarcely had time to react before a torrent of gunfire and flames was upon them. In the chaos, Maria managed to cover Leonora's escape, promising to follow as soon as she could. The Templetons burned everything everything they could, and destroyed everything they could not. Once they left, Leonora went back, hoping to find Maria, and after searching through the charred remains and through the caves, she found a set of footprints in the snow leading away from where the Templetons had gone. After a day of tracking through the wilderness, the footprints led her to a snowy forest clearing where she found Maria's dead body lying in the snow, as well as another set of footprints that did not belong to her. After the Massacre The months following the massacre seemed to blend together as Leonora wandered in the wilderness. After burying the body in the clearing where she was found and leaving an unmarked grave, she spent many sleepless nights contemplating suicide and revenge, sometimes so overcome with grief that she couldn't bring herself to move from her resting spot, wishing to just stay there and waste away. It took some time before she decided that Maria would have wanted her to seek happiness and find a peaceful life without her, and so she went back to Maria's grave to say her final goodbyes before setting off to find her place in the world. At first she stayed in Cheyenne territory, hoping to find her family and possibly reconnect with them. However, finding her childhood village was difficult, and she soon discovered that 'her kind' was often killed on sight. She decided that she could not go back while she was still marked by her demonic pact, and began searching for a way to undo it. In the meantime she made her living as a bounty hunter, and while she did sometimes have to explain away strange wounds inflicted on her bounties, she managed to stay off of the radar. She stayed around Gregorsville for a time, taking on the name Leonora Ryder and wandering southward into the heart of Amadea, hunting bounties and looking for information wherever she could. Eventually she came across a rumor of a very powerful magic user living in Canalla, and although there was little else to this rumor, the fact that it had traveled so far north told Leonora that it could be worth investigating. At the recommendation of an associate, she sought out Roso Blackhide to guide her into Canalla. Journey to Canalla Hyde Manor Terminus XXII While travelling south to Canalla, Leonora and Roso are caught in an unusually heavy storm and, seeing a manor in the distance where they might find shelter, find a safe place for their horses and go inside. They find a room to rest in, and as Nora pretends to sleep, Roso and Clementine keep watch. Upon hearing a group of people arrive at the manor, they decide to leave the room and investigate. While the newly arrived group is in the foyer, Roso, Clem, and Leonora creep through the hall to get a better look. As Dorian wanders into the hall to take a look at a suit of armor, he sees Roso as soon as he turns around to go back. Seeing that they've been discovered, Leonora takes this opportunity to grab the frog man from behind and pull him out of sight, holding a machete to his throat. After her interrogation, she brings him out into the open to confront the rest of the group and deescalate the situation, but this is disrupted by the sound of glass shattering elsewhere in the mansion. After deciding to split up into groups, Leonora, Dorian, Roso, and Clementine explore the right side of the first floor. They find a kitchen, a guest room, and a trophy room with many items displayed inside. After examining the items in the room, they return to the hall where Dorian notices that the suit of armor from before had moved. Leonora approached it and pulled off the helmet, causing the rest of the suit of armor to collapse with a loud crashing noise. Dorian decides to return to the others to find Gwen while Nora, Roso, and Clem explore the area more. They find a bathroom with a hot bath that had been recently drawn, and a dining room with a grand piano. It's there beside the grand piano that they find the source of the noise from before: a broken vase. As Leonora inspects the vase, the piano makes a loud noise, as if someone had struck a section of the keys. Unnerved, they leave to rejoin the rest of the group. Once reunited with the group, they explain to the others what they found. Just then, another loud crashing noise is heard throughout the manor, and the party decides to retreat to the trophy room to rest and decide what to do next. As the rest of the group starts looting the trophy room, Leonora takes Roso and Clementine to find the library. Once they leave, Clem catches scent of something unnatural, and Leonora sees the reflection of something pass by in the suit of armor in the hallway. They investigate in that direction, but upon finding nothing further, they continue to the library. Leonora searches the library for anything on demonic pacts that might lead her to information about how to break hers. She finds a book called "Sünden und ihre Manifestationen", however it's in Imperial and she's unable to read it. The two are joined in the library by Dorian, Frankie, and Gwen. After hearing a commotion upstairs, Roso and Clem leave to see what's happening. Leonora stays to see if she can find any more information, asking the others to let her know if they find anything related to demons. After another perusal of the library turns up nothing, they decide to explore the areas of the manor that they haven't looked through yet. Dorian questions Nora about her interest in demonic pacts, and Gwen asks her how she defends herself without firearms. She gives them both evasive answers, becoming annoyed at their prying. After finding a pantry, they enter a conservatory where Leonora finds a strange purple berry that was still ripe, despite everything around it being dead. After seeing a disturbing reflection, Gwen leaves the conservatory, and the others follow. They go to the dining room that Nora and Roso found earlier and see that the chandelier had fallen, likely breaking the floor below it, but before they could investigate further, Frankie is pulled away by an unknown force and dragged through the hallway back to the foyer, and the rest of the group gives chase. They find Frankie in the foyer, and as the rest of the group looks after him, Leonora searches for what dragged him there. As she does, the chandelier in the foyer falls and everyone except Koda manages to get out of the way. Dorian calls out to the spirits of the manor and a ghost appears at the top of the staircase. Leonora ties a rope to a banister and lowers it down in the hole for those who had gone down to help the injured Koda before following the rest of the group upstairs where the ghost had appeared. The Vampire Leonora helped the others search the master bedroom, finding an old revolver and a hand mirror before searching the servant's quarters. There, Leonora gives the revolver to Adam, saying that he'd make better use of it. They're about to leave when Leonora catches sight of something in the mirror. In the reflection she could see a strange figure, a Jackal, standing in the corner. She turned to look into that corner with her own eyes, seeing nothing there, then turned back to the mirror to find that the Jackal had gone. Unnerved, she left the room to rejoin the group, who were by now trying to open a coffin they had found to see what was moving around inside. They broke the chain holding the coffin shut and a vampire emerged. A fight broke out, and the vampire attacked Kinta as Roso and Clementine grappled with it. Leonora attacked with her spells and eventually the vampire was defeated. Leonora searched the coffin and found the key to a chest the group had found earlier, and opened it to reveal a sizable treasure, including three gold bars, a stack of cash, and a strange dagger which Roso quickly pocketed. Nora noticed that Roso had pocketed the black sapphire as well, to which he assured her that it was simply insurance in case the others didn't want to share the loot. Just then, Gwen and Dorian returned, having looked as though they had been through an ordeal. Unsure of what to do next, Dorian calls out to the spirits of the manor, and notices that Koda has been possessed by one of those spirits. The possessed Koda points to the spiral staircase leading to the third floor, and the group decides to follow the direction. The Jackal Upon arrival, they come to a hallway with six doors. Leonora and a few others choose a door and find the music room behind it, then choose another to find a storage room of some kind, eventually coming across a room filled with bones and human remains. The sight causes a few in the party to recoil as Nora and Roso enter to look around, seemingly less disturbed at the sight of death and decay than the others. Inside, Nora finds some money and a platinum pocket watch, as well as a blurry photograph that seemed to capture the Jackal's reflection. She leaves to get a better look at the photograph, showing it to the others. Just then they all feel a chill, and the door that wouldn't budge earlier suddenly creaks open. Inside they find mirrors placed in a circle with a rug at the center of the room. Leonora, seeing the layout of the room, recognizes it as a setup for a demonic ritual and tells Roso that there might be something under the rug. He removes it, revealing a large, circular black mirror with a fragment missing from it. As the group begins to discuss what to do with this new information, the Jackal attacks, unseen except in reflection, making it difficult to attack. Some of the other party members attempt to taunt it to draw it into the circle where the mirrors are, and Leonora joins in, spitting an insult at it in its own infernal tongue. The Jackal answers by appearing behind her and slashing at her back with its claws, doing a sizable amount of damage, as well as attacking her mentally and instilling her with an unnatural fear. The rest of the group fights the Jackal, managing to grapple it and reassemble the black mirror. The mirror opens and Roso, Kinta, and the Jackal fall in. Roso manages to grab the edge as well as Kinta and pull them both out. Once out, Gwen fires at the portal and shatters the mirror, sealing the Jackal away. With the battle over, Leonora collapses onto her hands and knees in pain. Dorian, seeing her falter, casts a healing spell on her, and Adam gives her a healing tonic. A clamoring is heard outside, and the group sees that the Templetons had followed them. As they scramble to leave, hastily making plans for their escape, they come across the suits of armor that they had seen around the manor. The ghost that had appeared to them on several occasions was there as well and saluted the group, seeming to indicate their willingness to help them escape. As the spirits of Hyde manor hold the Templetons back, the group take the rest of their loot and ride away on their horses. As they gain some distance between them and Hyde manor, it explodes into flames in the distance. The Road to Sombra Terminus XXV After several days, the group stops to take a rest, making sure that the Templetons were no longer on their tail, and they begin to discuss how they'd like to move forward. Leonora tells the group that she's going to Canalla for her own reasons, and that if they wanted to travel as a group, it would be up to Roso to decide if he wanted to risk getting involved with the Templetons in order to guide them into the territory as well. Roso agrees, but insists upon charging them each an amount. The group reluctantly complies, and Roso begins to lead them south into Canalla territory. They approach the town of Dustin, but seeing a group of Templetons nearby, decide to give it a wide berth. After some time travelling with little rest, Nora begins to crave a hot bath to help soothe her soreness, and perhaps help the wound on the back heal the rest of the way. Along the trail, Nora spots some strange white rocks ahead. Upon closer inspection, they turn out to be bones, the remains of a large creature. The group decides to press past it to Sombra, stopping just outside the city to plan their approach. Sombra Leonora and Roso arrive in Sombra and find an Inn, ordering some rooms and some drinks. Nora gets Roso to ask the bartender for some information, and they learn that he doesn't know anything about powerful magic users, but suggested that they see Don Guillermo, the man who runs the city. The bartender urges them that the Don won't want to be disturbed, and so Leonora decides to take this opportunity to draw herself the hot bath that she had been craving while Roso haggles for cheaper rooms in exchange for Clementine's services. In the washroom, Nora draws a hot bath and eases herself into it. The hot water stings the wounds on her back, which were still raw, but eventually the pain eases and she tries to relax, closing her eyes while she soaks. After some time, a darkness enters her mind, and the demon she is bound to appears in her thoughts, speaking to her. With a gasp she opens her eyes, jolting at the mental image, holding her head and cursing under her breath. As she left the washroom, now feeling far less relaxed, she finds some of the group leaving to visit Don Guillermo. Wanting to meet him as soon as possible, she follows closely behind them to the front of the large house on the far end of the street. After talking to the guards outside, Frankie is brought before them, and they finally meet the Don, as well as an Orc and a Dwarf who stands at their side. After some discussion, they free Frankie, and the Don invites the group inside to discuss things further. Category:Character Category:Protagonist Category:Female Category:Mortal Category:Violent Hearts: A Western Epic Category:Lore